Scientists, health experts and climate campaigners always say that we should be eating more legumes, which are things such as peas, beans and lentils.

That’s because they’re packed with vitamins, fibre and protein, but they also increase the health of soil and have a much lower impact on the planet than meat. But if you’ve looked at the supermarket shelves or a restaurant menu, there are many, many more meat options to choose from, and it’s hard to make people change their habits, even if it would be better for them and the climate.

One of the reasons why people like the taste of meat and fish is because of their texture, which comes from the way that the muscle fibres are arranged. Now, scientists in Zurich, Switzerland, say that they can replicate that arrangement with legumes, and their method “is so simple that it can be performed easily by anyone in a household kitchen,” says Andrea Bach, one of the researchers.

They’ve called their method ‘freeze-structuring’ and it involves blending the legumes into a purée and heating it at 90°C for 30 minutes. This turns it into more of a gel, which is then frozen. However, the mould they freeze it in is key, as it’s insulated on every side but one. This means that ice crystals form in parallel lines from that side, squeezing the gel into layers. When it’s thawed out, the fibre-type structure remains.

The research was published in the journal NPJ Science Of Food. Vote in our poll below!